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By Joe Buscaglia

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Bills' Fitzpatrick calls work with Lee "eye-opening"

by Joe Buscaglia,posted Jun 14 2012 11:20AM

Much has been said and written about Buffalo Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick and his work with quarterbacks coach David Lee through the off-season and the first three weeks of Organized Team Activities.

Speaking on The Howard Simon Show on Thursday morning, Fitzpatrick said he's seen some tangible results in his work with Lee even this short in to their working relationship.

"Yeah, there's been a big difference for me in my confidence level," the quarterback said. "Actually charting the throws, percentage of throws that are on the money, and percentage of throws that are being completed. There's been a nice increase over the off-season."

During the interview, Jeremy White asked Fitzpatrick about the work on his mechanics in relation to what Tim Tebow had to go through when he was going through the draft process. He says it's partly a matter of muscle memory, but he doesn't have to try and change what Tebow did back in 2010.

"For me it's not really my throwing motion. It really has nothing to do with my upper body, it's all in my waist down. I think that's something that's a lot easier to correct. I've been throwing, my release point and all that stuff... that's stuff that's really hard to fix. But I think the lower body stuff, there's just a few tweaks in things. Even being able to talk during a game and say, 'Ryan, you missed that low... here's why.' Just to be able to think about that and tweak it, that'll be an easy fix for us."

In his 7 years in the NFL, Fitzpatrick commented at the beginning of OTA's that he'd never really had his throwing motion tinkered with. While admitting that most the work from a quarterbacks coach does, and should focus on the starting quarterback, Fitzpatrick said his work with Lee thus far has been surprising and hopes it's the start of a very fruitful relationship.

"So for me, and even knowing that I wasn't where I needed to be, I didn't think there were a few simple things that I was doing wrong that we'd be able to fix it. That's been an eye-opening experience for me and something that hopefully really helps me improve this year."

Fitzpatrick added Lee has used golf as an analogy when they first started speaking once the Bills hired him.